Articles

There exist acquired tastes in life. Flavors you might not have liked before but now feel an urge to experience from time to time. And they grows on you, like that itch for spicy food or the craving for just on more cup of coffee. Such is moe – an acquired taste for some and that piece of dreaded spinach for others. There’s no denying that moe is a money-printing machine that will continue to play a big part in the visual styles of anime in the years to come. But is moe contributing to anime? And where exactly do we draw the fine line between suggestive moe and outright hentai? Continue reading »

A few days ago while writing the Twelve Kingdoms Blu-ray review I was again troubled by one of the hardest questions anime fans and anime production companies all face. That question being: how come modern anime series never become big hits in the West? The Twelve Kingdoms, for example, is remarkably similar to the Games of Thrones TV series. So how come one slipped completely under the mainstream radar while the other took mainstream viewers by storm?
Let’s use these two series as representatives of their respective mediums and inspect what holds back anime from becoming a consistent blockbuster on American soil. Continue reading »

With the Nanamine arc coming to an end this is a good opportunity to discuss a very peculiar skill that a lot of main characters in shounen series lack but is essential to being a main character in Bakuman – creativity. Continue reading »

A wise old man once said: “with a great season of anime comes great responsibility”. Okay, maybe he didn’t. Nevertheless after arguably two slow seasons we are finely experiencing a flood of quality anime. Some I will be writing about for the first time. Others I’ve already covered in my first impression posts and will check back and see how they fare. Continue reading »

Shounen Jump anime series are an ambiguous creature. They are the most popular anime ever created and are enjoying immense fan bases. On the other hand they are infamously filled with fillers, can be repetitive, are stretched across hundreds of episodes and at times suffer from low production quality. I’ve been watching Naruto for ten years now. I can’t stand fillers and have lost my passion for ninja action a long time ago. So how come I still watch Naruto and am enjoying it? Continue reading »